Farmers urge Cada office to scrap solar project

Lokmat News Network

Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar:

The proposed solar power project planned on land acquired for the Lower Dudhna project, particularly land that does not get submerged, should be cancelled. Farmers have demanded that the land purchased from them be returned at the same rate at which it was acquired. To press these demands, hundreds of farmers from 21 affected villages began a sit-in protest on Friday morning outside the office of the Chief Engineer of the Command Area Development Authority (Cada). Raising strong slogans, the farmers made the Cada premises echo with their protests.

Solar Project planned on acquired project land

For the Lower Dudhna project in Parbhani district, hundreds of hectares of land belonging to thousands of farmers from various villages in Selu tehsil were acquired. Even when the dam is filled to 100 per cent capacity, these lands do not get submerged. Every year, farmers cultivate this land by paying rent to the department of irrigation (DoI). Now, the DoI has entered into an agreement to hand over this land to the Maharashtra State Electricity Distribution Company (Mahavitaran) for setting up a solar power project. As soon as farmers learned of this, they became aggressive.

The farmers claimed that they had given their fertile land for the dam project, and therefore the proposed solar project on their land should be cancelled. They demanded that their land be returned to them, and that the government should take back the compensation paid earlier. Under the leadership of Swabhimani Shetkari Sanghatana leaders Ganesh Rajbinde and Satish Jaykoji Nirval, the sit-in protest was launched.

Hundreds of farmers, women, and youth participated in the agitation. Slogans such as “Cancel the solar project,” “Shetkari Sanghatna Zindabad,” etc were raised, reverberating across the Cada premises. Arrangements for meals were made on-site, and cooking began there itself.

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Where did the chief engineer and superintending engineer go?

A prior written notice had been submitted informing the Cada office about the farmers’ protest. However, instead of facing the protesting farmers, chief engineer Sunanda Jagatap and superintending engineer Samadhan Sabbinwar were absent from the office citing various reasons.

Assistant chief engineer Raju Deshmukh held discussions with the protesters. He issued a letter stating that a meeting regarding the issue has been scheduled for January 27 and requested the farmers to suspend the agitation until then, after which he left the office. The farmers, however, decided to continue the protest until their demands were accepted.

Farmers from these villages participated in the protest

Farmers from the following villages in Parbhani district participated in the agitation – Revangaon, Salgaon, Kondegaon, Rani Wahegaon, Satona Khurd and Satona Budruk, Devla, Chincholi, Mapegaon, Kedar Wakdi, Nansi, Mangrul, Gopegaon, Wajola, Chandeshor, Padali, Nagapur, Koregaon, Rohina Khurd and Budruk, as well as Karanjkheda.